Category: External news about nudity

A breast too far

How well hidden must tasteful art involving nudity be in order to keep knowledge of adult nudity out of the view of children, and thereby to pass on unhealthy attitudes to yet another generation?

At least as far as a wall behind a row of book stacks would appear to be the attitude of a librarian in the body-phobic state of Virginia.

VA Library Moves Nude Painting Behind Stacks

After a mother and tutor complained in July, Chesapeake Public Library in Virginia has moved a painting of a female nude from a place near the building’s main entrance to a wall behind a row of stacks, the Norfolk Virginia-Pilot reported July 29. Roughly 12,000 people walked past the piece, based on library estimates that a thousand people a day visit the building.

“Morning Dreamer” by local painter Karen Kinser was on display for two weeks before the mother and tutor complained that the painting was on view in a place where children could see it. The painting depicts a woman, one of whose breasts is visible, reclining in bed. Kinser has been showing her work for eight years at the library but it has never been objected to before.

We mentioned this story a few days ago. But it seems worthwhile to revisit it for more emphasis.

Kinser called the relocation censorship. A library official said she made a practical decision for a public facility funded by taxpayers’ dollars.

Margaret Stillman, the library’s director, loves Kinser’s work. But she made the call to move the 16-by-18-inch painting on July 13.

We can sympathize with Ms. Stillman’s dilemma, given the known antipathy towards nudity in a place like Virginia. But we humbly submit that librarians share with parents and other educators the function of transmitting the best of our culture to future generations, not finding ways to keep it out of their sight.

Parents who learned to fear nudity in their own upbringing should have the right to pass this fear on to their kids, if they must. But they shouldn’t be able to deceive their kids into thinking there are no other points of view. It’s true that nudity is controversial, but as the “intelligent design” enthusiasts and their political supporters claim, we need to “teach the controversy”. Libraries do this by making available the writings of “intelligent design” proponents to anyone who’s interested. They should do no less with respect to tasteful artistic presentations of nudity — even for kids.

Karen Kinser’s paintings certainly qualify. By all means, visit her home page and see for yourself. (More here.) The work is striking and beautiful, especially in her handling of color and pose. Kinser illuminates her artistic philosophy with a quote from Picasso: “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

Or, as I like to say, “Art helps explain us to ourselves.”

Originally posted August 28, 2005

“We need nudists on the beach now more than ever”

No nudes is bad news

The sad thing is, we need nudists on the beach now more than ever. They alone are brave enough to defy the tyranny of the body beautiful. Dedicated as they are to feeling comfortable in their skin, they eschew such practices as bikini-waxing, fake tanning, or plastic surgery. Lumpy, hairy, defiantly natural, they are our last defence against the porn-star aesthetic.

That may explain why there seems to be a growing mood of fondness towards nudies. Last month, Stephen Gough set off from Land’s End to reprise his historic walk – this time in the company of a naked girlfriend. They got as far as Shropshire before they were arrested. But the locals have come out in their defence: in a poll for the Shropshire Star, 67% said they wouldn’t mind encountering a naked rambler. If only the people of Illinois had been so enlightened.

This opinion piece wasn’t contributed by a recognized naturist/nudist leader, but instead by editorial writer Jemima Lewis of the UK’s Guardian Unlimited. (If you read the article, it will be apparent why it didn’t appear in a major U. S. media spot.)

The piece is based on a couple of interesting news tidbits. The first is the rather unhappy story of the passing of an elderly U. S. naturist named Robert Norton. The best account seems to be here: Nudist’s naked burial wish denied, again from a UK source (the BBC). Some out there may recall having read about Norton in recent years. The octogenarian liked to work nude in his garden in the midwestern small town of Pekin, Illinois, for which he was regularly arrested on the complaint of his neighbor, Brenda Loete.

Brenda Loete said she never spoke to Norton despite living next door to him for more than a decade.

“We didn’t really know him. We just had him arrested,” she said.

She had spent years taking her daughter to the park rather than letting her play in the garden because of the naked old man next door, she said.

“Normally, if we had him arrested in the spring he’d be gone for the summer and we wouldn’t have to worry about him until the next spring.”

How mean-spirited can a person be? Well, even more mean-spirited than Ms. Loete, it seems. Norton’s last wish was to be buried nude. His own family, especially a brother named Jack, who is a minister from Columbus, Ohio, saw to it that this wish was denied:

His brothers have decided to lay him to rest in grey trousers and a shirt.

One of them, Jack, is a minister. “He’s not going to be buried in the nude,” he said.

How’s that for small-mindedness? (More news reports: here).

The other story is a bit more upbeat and concerns the “naked rambler” Steve Gough. It’s true that Steve and Melanie were arrested in Shropshire on July 19. However, the complaint of only a single individual was required to trigger the arrest, and the case was eventually dropped on August 15. Even better, the trek by Gough and his friends has revealed widespread public support for the naturists’ plucky adventure. This public relations victory, of course, was one of Steve’s objectives.

There’s been a considerable amount of additional news about the little jaunt of Steve and friends (which you can find at nakedwalk.org), but we’ll put off commentary on that for another time.

Originally posted August 28, 2005

Nude theater… in Kansas!

Nude actors to perform in Topeka

Actors and actresses will bare it all next month at a city-owned theater when a nudist colony stages a series of plays it commissioned to promote a clothing-free lifestyle.

The Lake Edun Foundation Inc. (Edun is nude spelled backward) promoted the plays in its August newsletter under the headline, “No Sex, No Violence … Only Nudity.”

The plays are scheduled to be performed Sept. 24 to Oct. 1 at the Topeka Performing Arts Center’s Hussey Playhouse.

Of course, just to be nasty, the writer of the Associated Press story had to use the word “colony”. But that’s Kansas for you.

Longer article: Curtain to rise, clothes to fall

More: here, here.

Lake Edun’s newsletter provides a little more detail:

From the frantic and funny to the reflective and informed, these brilliant and witty one-act plays promise a rare evening of Topeka theatre. So rare, in fact, that almost 30 years have passed since the last time auditions were called requiring actors to undress for the stage.

Originally posted August 26, 2005

Nudity — U. S. vs. Europe

Interesting opinion piece from USA Today:

Prudishness is one thing; censorship quite another [URL still valid!]

Europe’s light and easygoing approach to sex and nudity can provide some shocking moments for U.S. travelers:

• On a recent trip, my wife and I had to take the TV out of our children’s hotel room, as the porn stations were free and available, going at it right there between Euro-sports and MTV.

• In Munich, workers take a summer lunch break in their Central Park. They lay out a blanket, fold their power suits neatly, and sunbathe fully nude, oblivious to wide-eyed American tourists passing by.

• Mediterranean beaches are topless — and would be much more so if not for a current concern for skin cancer.

• Germany’s steamy mineral spas are co-ed.

• On billboards everywhere, lathered-up breasts promote the latest soap product.

From Norway to Naples, it seems Europeans have a relaxed attitude about public displays of nudity and sex. Even prim, churchgoing German hausfraus seem to accept that the human body and sexuality are facts of life, and displaying or talking about it in public is no big deal.

Sounds reasonably good, despite the negative spin that the writer uses here and there.

So how does the U. S. stack up? We need only think “Janet Jackson” and we sort of know the answer to that. But here are a few more recent data points:

Woman wants kids clothed on beaches

Helen Hoffman wants the board to address the problem of nudity on town beaches. It’s not what you think – the nude people in question are small children.

Hoffman sent a letter to the selectmen asking them to put a new rule in the town’s beach ordinances banning nudity. She sent the letter after witnessing a few incidents where parents were letting toddlers run around naked at the beach.

Virginia Library Relocates Nude Painting

After receiving complaints from two patrons in mid-July, Chesapeake (Va.) Public Library has moved a painting of a nude from an area near the building’s main entrance to a wall on the opposite side of the facility, behind a row of stacks. Local artist Karen Kinser’s Morning Dreamer depicts a woman, one of whose breasts is visible, reclining in bed; it had been on display for two weeks before the complainants—a mother and a tutor who works with students at the library—objected to its placement in an area where children could see it as they entered the building.
  

Nude art upsets Ankeny residents

While a spray-painted figure of a nude angel on the side of a Des Moines building gave residents a rise in early August, artist Martin Davis was adding nude figures to his sculpture “Water Bearing Figure” at the entrance to a subdivision in southwest Ankeny.

Neighbors of the sculpture in the White Birch development called it “pornographic” and approached the Ankeny City Council.

“My 8-year-old daughter has seen it, which is unacceptable,” said Brian Strait at a Monday meeting. “We feel that the object can diminish the value of our property, and we’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in our homes.”

Women’s nude awakening

Topless women on skates, bikes, and foot drew a surging crowd of grateful gawkers in Columbus Circle yesterday when they doffed their shirts to affirm the right to bare a lot more than arms.

The 10 or so women gathered and showed nearly all to protest the arrest of Jill (Phoenix) Feeley, who said she was taken into custody this month after going half-naked on the lower East Side.

But Feeley and friends soon found out that taking such a revealing stance in New York can be risky.

“It got hot, then it got rainy,” said Feeley, 25.

Then at least a dozen drooling men rushed through barricades and surrounded the women shortly before 4:30 p.m.

Just selected examples, of course, but these details pretty much sum up the U. S. vs. Europe as far as intelligence and common sense regarding nudity is concerned. And the U. S. comes out looking pretty dumb.

Does this really matter, given that a large majority in the U. S. (as well as Europe) don’t care to go nude in public all that much?

Maybe it does, for the overall psychological health of the society. The USA Today article puts it like this:

Mingling with Europeans as I do for a third of my year, I listen to them when they give their perspective on America. “Here in Italy,” brags my friend Francesca, “we see racy ads for phone sex on TV all the time, but we still have less teen pregnancy and fewer abortions than you Americans. Less rape and domestic violence, too. Why is that?”

Originally posted August 2, 2005

Art in the nude

There’s a lot of classical and modern art, of course, that involves nudes, but how often does the museum or gallery visitor get to go nude?

Go nude for the naked truth at Vienna museum

Vienna’s Leopold Museum has invited the public to come in the nude on Friday to view an exhibition of erotic works by Austrian masters such as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, a spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, that was one day only, July 29, 2005 — and you had to be in Vienna (not such a bad thing, actually).

The exhibition, titled The Naked Truth: Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka and Other Scandals, showcases nude portraits by Austrian artists that scandalised the country at the turn of the century and have in many cases retained their shock value.


Vienna museum opens to nudes beating the heat

Vienna’s Leopold Museum offered free entry on Friday to anybody who came in swimsuits or naked, in response to a summer heat wave with temperatures in the 30s (90s Fahrenheit).

The museum said about 300 women and men in bikinis or bathing trunks, and 10 in their birthday suits, showed up as of midday to tour the exhibit.

Museum to Let Naked People in Free

Most of those who showed up in little or no attire Friday opted for swimsuits, but a few hardy souls dared to bare more. Among them was Bettina Huth of Stuttgart, Germany, who roamed the exhibition wearing only sandals and a black bikini bottom.

Although she used a program at one point to shield herself from a phalanx of TV cameras, Huth, 52, said she didn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

“I go into the steam bath every week, so I’m used to being naked,” she said. “I think there’s a double morality, especially in America. We lived in California for two years, and I found it strange that my children had to cover themselves up at the beach when they were only 3 or 4 years old. That’s ridiculous.”

Also: here [link still valid!], here

Of course, we always get ticked off when something or other having to do with nudity is titled the “Naked Truth”, but we can put up with little problems like that in this case.

Originally published August 22, 2005

Naturism under attack in Kansas

Now for the bad news.

Nudist retreat restricted

“Restricted”? No, “assaulted”, “mugged”, or “raped” is more like it. But then, you wouldn’t expect anything that might sound critical of local public officials to be allowed, would you? (You might find yourself zoned out of business.)

Basically, a local naturist park on rural land near Topeka– Lake Edun — has been ordered to shut down, despite no charges of misbehavior of any sort, its only crime being to celebrate naturist joie de vivre.

Formally, the excuse is violation of local zoning — even though the zoning was deliberately instituted only recently specifically in order to eliminate Lake Edun, which has existed peacefully in its present location for some time. Exactly why is it that zoning against a harmless hiking and swimming spot is needed in the middle of s sparsely-populated rural area?

The state of Kansas prides itself on its extreme conservatism. But aren’t private property rights a cornerstone of conservative values? Apparently not anymore. If you want to use your private property for naturism, you would seem to be SOL in Kansas. Another naturist spot in Kansas, the Gaea Retreat Center, has also been under frequent attack by the local body-phobic powers that be.

Additional news reports: here.

Originally published July 17, 2005

Palm Springs

Seems to be a naturist Mecca, with an assortment of naturist resorts and hotels in the area that may be rivaled (in the U. S.) only by Pasco County, FL.

In the summer Palm Springs is hotter than Hades, with daytime highs from 115 to 120 Fahrenheit. (The best season to visit, if you have a choice, is any of them except summer. However, resorts like Desert Shadows do mist outdoor areas with water to cool things off.) But in summer, somehow the news media seem also to discover the subject of naturism, and so one finds a number of news stories appearing that mostly sound as though the writer had only recently discovered naturism. Fortunately, most seem to like what they’ve found. (See this one posted here recently.)

Anyhow, in view of its summery climate, could there be many places besides Palm Springs where one might so urgently want to be naked?

Valley’s naturist and clothing-optional resorts gaining broader appeal

This article, which just appeared, from a local reporter, gives one of the better media accounts of naturism and naturist resorts. It evidences an understanding of the subject without being marred by the usual clichés (like “naked truth”).

Palm Springs has always thrived on drawing visitors with an odd assortment of attractions: lush golf courses, glamorous film festivals, raucous gay parties, rumbling motorcycle weekend, sappy Frank Sinatra nostalgia.

But one of the area’s growing tourist draws has been covered up–until now.

Today, more than 30 clothing optional and naturist resorts operate in Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs and Cathedral City, offering venues where guests can lounge, flirt or play tennis in the buff. Along with cities like Fort Lauderdale and Key West, the Palm Springs area is at the forefront of nude recreation.

Behind high walls or out of sight in remote desert locations, one of the nation’s fastest-growing travel industries is quietly thriving here and attracting a new generation of enthusiasts.

There’s plenty of good information in the article even for experienced naturists, as the page has contact information and Web links for the leading naturist destinations in the area.

The reporter also emphasizes how families and younger people are discovering naturist opportunities:

Nude recreation is now attracting more families and committed couples, as well as growing numbers of young people who praise nudism as healthy, liberating and just plain fun.

“I obtain a totally different feeling of relaxation being nude,” says Coryn Wright, a 20-year-old from Chico who recently came to be natural at Desert Shadows for the second time this year.

“(Naturism) totally changed my self-confidence,” she says, sitting comfortably in a metal chair overlooking the pool area. “Every woman that you see in the media is skinny with big boobs. Here you can see people that are actually normal.”

Since having her first naturist experience last year, Wright has become active in spreading the word about her new hobby to friends and strangers, and she says she sees it catching on.

She recently traveled to the Goodland Country Club, a famous naturist park in Hackettstown, N.J., and met many other young people who, like her, are embracing naturist lifestyles.

Admittedly, that sounds a tad promotional, but it’s still encouraging.

Young people talk about how naturism has been beneficial for their self-confidence:

“I have a hard time being able to go to a beach in a bathing suit without guys ogling me,” says Wright, the Desert Shadows guest. “(Here) I’m way less aware of my body.”

Wright, who visited Desert Shadows on a friend’s recommendation last August, brought her younger sister Krista this time for her first naturist experience.

“It’s a little startling when you first walk in,” laughs Krista. “The hardest part is the getting naked part. The being naked part is easy.”

But four hours after experiencing the mild shock of walking out nude into the sunny courtyard of Desert Shadows, she believes that anyone can do it.

“A lot of people think being nude is being vulnerable,” she says, “but I think a lot of people would be better off doing it.”

It’s worth noting that the city of Palm Springs is very supportive of its naturist resorts. Resort operators are active in local civic groups like the Chamber of Commerce. And public officials routinely officiate at the openings of new resorts.

Nice contrast to some places we could mention.

Published July 16, 2005

Italian poll on nude sunbathing

You might think that Italy, one of the more socially conservative and religiously encumbered countries in Europe, might be very disapproving of nude sunbathing at the beaches. (Voters last month failed to approve a referendum on reproductive freedom that was opposed by the Catholic church. And 76-year-old renowned author Oriana Fallaci has actually been committed for trial next year in criminal proceedings for blasphemy — more on that here — because she has written critically of Islam.)

But perhaps the attitudes of most Italians are more open-minded than their legal and political institutions would indicate. A recent poll commissioned by the Italian Naturist Federation indicates that most Italians think nude sunbathing is perfectly natural:

While topless sunbathing is widely practiced in Italy, bottoms are usually required and nudists can face fines of more than 500 euros ($595) on some beaches, the Italian Naturalist Federation said.

But the federation said a poll it commissioned from a mainstream media outlet found nearly 70 percent of those surveyed said they would sunbath nude if everyone else did it. More than 80 percent said nudism was not erotic, but natural.

Not bad. And the fact that beach topfreedom for women is widely practiced shows that Italians are a lot better off in body acceptance that the U. S…

The news story is also here.

You might think that Italy, one of the more socially conservative and religiously encumbered countries in Europe, might be very disapproving of nude sunbathing at the beaches. (Voters last month failed to approve a referendum on reproductive freedom that was opposed by the Catholic church. And 76-year-old renowned author Oriana Fallaci has actually been committed for trial next year in criminal proceedings for blasphemy — more on that here — because she has written critically of Islam.)

But perhaps the attitudes of most Italians are more open-minded than their legal and political institutions would indicate. A recent poll commissioned by the Italian Naturist Federation indicates that most Italians think nude sunbathing is perfectly natural:

While topless sunbathing is widely practiced in Italy, bottoms are usually required and nudists can face fines of more than 500 euros ($595) on some beaches, the Italian Naturalist Federation said.

But the federation said a poll it commissioned from a mainstream media outlet found nearly 70 percent of those surveyed said they would sunbath nude if everyone else did it. More than 80 percent said nudism was not erotic, but natural.

Not bad. And the fact that beach topfreedom for women is widely practiced shows that Italians are a lot better off in body acceptance that the U. S…

The news story is also here.

Originally published July 16, 2005

Portland 2005 WNBR report

The WNBR contingent in Portland, OR, seems to have been the world’s second largest (after London) — 169 strong, according to this report:

“23 minutes we ride! Clothes off!”

After the midnight count-down to pants down, the 90 people at the dance met another slew of naked people in the street all waiting for the moment of truth. Clothes were stuffed into saddlebags, body paint was slapped on. The one toddler, who was not naked, but well bundled up against the chilly night winds, was strapped onto his seat and into his helmet. Not everyone was naked, but everyone was sexy!.”

The figure of 169 riders mentioned later in the report represents folks who joined after the start. But that’s not all — a number of spectators apparently joined in the fun also:

I saw a few not-so-innocent bystanders swinging their own clothes and personal fetters around their heads in support.

Sounds like a good time was had by all.

Here’s a handful of photos documenting the fun.

Originally published July 16, 2005

Follow-up: Strike Daytona Beach, FL from your travel plans

By all means, if you’re going to Florida, make it a point to visit the legally nude sections of Apollo and Playalinda beaches at Canaveral National Seashore. (But watch out for the space shuttle launch on July 13. Playalinda, which is just a few miles north of the launch site, is closed for several days around that time. Also, watch out for the really blood-thirsty local mosquitoes.)

However, by all means, do not plan to stay or spend money in Daytona Beach, just a few miles north of Apollo Beach. We would suggest spending time at Ormond Beach, just north of Daytona, or New Smyrna Beach, south of Daytona (and closer to Apollo). Most of the folks in Daytona are very nice, but there are a few nasty suckers in that town:

Topless woman arrested while protesting nudity law in Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
A stay-at-home mother was arrested when she exposed her breasts to protest laws that bar women from publicly going topless.

Elizabeth Book, of Ormond Beach, pulled down her top Saturday at a city auditorium, where she stood near four Grecian muse sculptures that are nude from the waist up.

Book, who had spread word of the protest days in advance, was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct.

It was just a few days ago we wrote that Book had won a legal case which affirmed she had the First Amendment right to bare her breasts. So much for public officials respecting the law and people’s free-speech rights.

Other references for this story: here, here.

Originally published July 6, 2005